Chinese scientists have demonstrated a new quantum-based communication protocol, a particle technology likely to revolutionize global communication and computation in the 21st century, a chief scientist at the program said Wednesday.

The successful use of this high-dimensional quantum entanglement overhauls the functionality of quantum information processing, rendering it safer and more efficient, according to the findings of the lab at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province.

High-dimensional entanglement not only has better efficiency in information communication, but also better resistance against environmental disturbance, "making it even more difficult to crack," LI Chuanfeng, laboratory executive deputy director told the Global Times on Wednesday.

High-dimensional entanglement will make a future quantum network possible, in which information storage and transmission will be safer and more efficient, LI said.

The Chinese research team published their findings in June in Science Advances, a science magazine run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

To achieve the breakthrough in high-quality, high-dimensional entangled states, the Chinese team had to link up a high fidelity four-dimensional entanglement device and distinguish between five four-dimensional Bell states.

China is currently the only country that can do both, LI said.

In 2016, a team of Chinese physicists led by PAN Jianwei realized a genuine entanglement of 18 quantum particles, beating their own world record. The team has set their next goal at 50.

On May 11, the Nature Publishing Group released Nature Publishing Index 2010 China, remarking “a dramatic rise in the quality of research being published by China”. University of Science and Technology of China is ranked 3rd of TOP 10 Institutions in Index 2010 China.